


Soothing Soulmates

by GeekMom13



Series: Soulmate works [2]
Category: Yuri!!! on Ice (Anime)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Anxiety, M/M, References to Depression, Romantic Soulmates, Soulmates
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-19
Updated: 2018-02-19
Packaged: 2019-03-21 07:25:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,023
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13736004
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GeekMom13/pseuds/GeekMom13
Summary: Victor's side of Soothing Songs. ( as requested by awesomecookies )





	Soothing Soulmates

**Author's Note:**

  * For [awesomecookies](https://archiveofourown.org/users/awesomecookies/gifts).



> Now, I put "Chose not to" as the archive warning in addition to "No warning applies"  
> This is because this part _does_ have mental health stuff in it. It's personal experiences with how my best friend and I experience our own illnesses.
> 
> [Visit me on Tumblr. I take requests, talk headcanons and generally geek out over everything.](https://geekmom13.tumblr.com/)

The first time Victor heard his soulmate, he was nine. He had rushed to his mother and said they needed to find the little kid who was crying- they sounded hurt. 

His mother had quickly checked their yard, finding no child, she headed back inside and asked Victor if he could tell her where the sound was coming from. 

He couldn’t because the sound was apparently  _ everywhere. _ And that’s when his mother explained soulmates to him, well… got halfway through before he started trying to sing an old lullaby. She smiled as he got some of the words wrong, but just sat on the couch next to him, waiting while he soothed his soulmate. 

“Mama, I can’t hear the crying anymore.”

“Then you did good Vitya. You can only hear them when they need you.”

She continued her explanation, letting him know a few tips. She sang him the  _ correct _ version of the lullaby later that day when he started practising. 

The first time he heard his soulmate singing, he was wiped out on the ice, body still crumpled against the rink wall. He was trying hard to work on a jump sequence and couldn’t get his left foot to cooperate. The voice filtering through his mind was shy and  _ definitely  _ not Russian. 

He had tried to find a song that sounded the same… but after the sixth song, he was forgetting the melody he heard. 

Each time he fell on the ice, a different song came through. He’d  _ never  _ narrow down his soulmate at this rate. 

When Victor was 14 his mother died. He saw a counsellor at Yakov’s insistence when he stopped showing up to practices. As he spoke with the woman about his life before and after her death she told him he suffered from depression. Sometimes, when the medication wasn’t helping, a song would float through. He would listen to his soulmate… song after song as the voice soothed his soul. 

The songs helped him remember to keep moving, to take care of himself, to eat… He started to write down little things to apologize for. His soulmate was so understanding. There were times he’d be listening for hours before he was able to pull himself back together. 

The hopelessness and exhaustion wouldn’t go away, but he could at least function by the time the songs faded away. 

He wrote in his journal one time  _ I wonder what you hear _ .

When he was 15, he realized his soulmate had mental issues too. He was startled out of a spin by a burst of that other language he was used to. 

He left the ice and went directly to his bag, writing out things he could, hoping the phonetics could help him narrow it down. 

He started singing the familiar lullaby to his soulmate, running through his cool down stretches as he sang over the flurry of words, wishing he could understand. He was still singing the song as he left the rink, Yakov yelling at him. 

After that first attack, Victor had tried to find the two words he heard the most… shin pie. He got a new recipe out of it. But… It didn’t lead to anything about his soulmate. 

Except that English was probably  _ not  _ their primary language. He doubted the panicked voice was talking about a pastry filled with meat and vegetables.

Over the next couple years, there was a  _ lot _ of singing between the two. Victor had a list of languages he had ruled out. 

Victor was greeting the press after the junior world championships when one commented how his family must be so proud. 

Most days, he would have been able to shake off the comment and let Yakov gracefully end the press conference and give him a pep talk. But his new medication wasn’t working right and all he could do was put on his fake smile and try to not cry as he walked away before Yakov could even politely excuse them. 

By the time he got to his room, Yakov was basically pushing him forward. The old coach took off his shoes and tucked him into bed, heading off to find Lilia. 

Not that Victor had been aware of any of that. 

And then  _ it _ came through. The short skate song he had just performed today.

His soulmate was singing his short skate music. 

Victor  _ shattered _ . 

He was gasping for breath and sobbing as his soulmate sang, then his soulmate started to cry… and it was a mess.

Lilia walked in and gathered the young skater into her arms, singing the Russian lullaby Victor seemed so fond of right along with him. They stayed like that all night- Lilia gently rocking Victor like he was her child, singing the lullaby as Yakov paced and snoozed in the chair- keeping watch. 

Like he always had.

After Victor had lost his mother, Lilia and Yakov took him in until he turned 16, helping him find a new apartment after. It wasn’t the first time a skater was taken in and they were both pretty sure it wouldn’t be the last. 

In the morning, Victor sat on the floor and let Lilia comb through the knots in his hair and pull it into his standard high pony. She carefully removed what was left of his stage makeup, gently cleansing him of the pain of last night.

But now Victor knew his soulmate was watching him. 

His soulmate  _ knew who he was _ . 

When he was 22 he noticed his soulmate’s schedule changed. His voice was no longer groggy in the afternoon like he had woken up to Victor’s falls at the rink. 

He also noticed the songs started to be in English. Pop songs. 

He knew enough English to figure out that these were  _ American _ pop songs. 

His soulmate seemed to like Taylor Swift, a lot. Though, Victor enjoyed the one time his soulmate had sung him Rack City. It seemed his soulmate didn’t want to swear. And that song… was  _ full _ of swears for his soulmate to replace. 

So now he had narrowed it down- a skating fan who moved to America in 2012. Which, as a google search and some  _ really _ annoying math proved, was not much of an improvement. 

When he was 23, he was visiting his Mother’s grave when a new song rang in his ears. His could hear his soulmate’s laugh as they got through it the third time. Victor was about 90% certain his soulmate was a boy at this point. 

When he was heading home a little bit later, that familiar panicked chant echoed in his head. He sang the gum song right back to his soulmate and the chant broke down, briefly letting the echo of the song filter through before their connection went silent again. 

That became their new go-to exchange. Victor’s newest rinkmate told him he was a loser (and added on how his soulmate was cooler and knew the songs from  _ Aristocats _ ) 

They spent the next four years singing that jingle. Victor had managed to convert basically his whole rink to chewing that type, much to the youngest one's annoyance. He constantly commented on how  _ the Russian commercial was cooler _ .

When he was 27, he met his soulmate. And proceeded to insult him.

To be fair, it wasn’t his fault. His soulmate had been miserable for almost two days already and Victor had switched back to the old lullaby when the gum jingle didn’t work. Eventually, he heard the crying subside. 

He had felt eyes on him and turned around, offering his best fake smile, “Commemorative photo? Sure.”

Yuri had proceeded to tell him he just offered his  _ competitor _ a fan photo. Then proceeded to talk about how it was obvious the man was a fan but that it was still insulting.

Victor couldn’t hear the rest of the rant though, his soulmate needed him. He started to gently hum out the jingle, reminding his soulmate he was still there. 

“Mister Nikiforov! What was that we just heard?” One of the reporters shouted as he walked away from the press gathered by the doors.

“Oh. Well, that was me cheering my soulmate up!” Victor responded, smiling at the group. Maybe now his soulmate would come forward!

“What were you singing? If it isn’t too much to ask.”

Victor smiled, “It’s a gum commercial song from America. It’s an inside joke for us now.”

“Oh, how come we haven’t seen your soulmate around?”

Victor’s smile dropped briefly, “We… We haven’t been able to meet yet.”

The reporter was trying to find a way to smooth over the question when Victor’s smile turned back to his normal press smile, “I’m hoping they see this interview and come find me.” He then sang  _ Double your pleasure _ with a wink and walked away. 

Yakov cursed and sent a warning to Victor’s publicist. If the boy hadn’t  _ meant _ the innuendo- which was a 50/50 shot he’d learned- this was going to end poorly. 

He gathered all his skaters before the banquet and reminded them of the rules- always smile and no swearing around the sponsors. He gave them each a small rundown of which sponsors to focus on- and what topics would work best. Victor had been given one extra instruction- apologize to Japan’s top skater. 

Apparently, Yakov and Celestino had  _ talked _ .

The team headed to another boring banquet with many polite nods. Victor spotted his first sponsor right off the entrance, greeting him with a glass of champagne and talking about the newest ads they planned to put him in. 

Before he knew it, he was being called to by his fans, the sponsor patting his shoulder and saying they’d catch up later. Victor knew that meant a boring dinner would be on his schedule soon.

Fan after fan pulled him close for photos, some trying to sing the jingle to him. None were right and he would pull his lips tight and shake his head. 

Some looked disappointed- but most seemed upset. 

He kept glancing over his shoulder at Christophe and the boy he was supposed to apologize to. Though now he could tell he was closer to Victor’s age than he thought before. He looked close to Christophe, maybe that was the mystery man Chris always talked about?

One more head shake and he started to formulate an apology to Christophe too. 

Finally, ten minutes and thirty bad renditions of the jingle later, Victor headed back into the banquet, immediately downing a glass of champagne. 

He went to apologize but got stopped by his biggest sponsor. 

“I see you’re wearing last season’s suit still. We simply  _ must  _ fix that. I’ll have next season’s styles sent to you immediately. Measurements still the same?”

“Yes Ma’am-”

“Good, good…”

At least this sponsor was simple enough. Smile, nod, agree, refer her to Yakov for any photo schedules.  _ Because we can’t upset coach! _ Same line every year and she would eat it up.  _ Every year _ since he first signed with them when he cut his hair. 

It was another two sponsor conversations before he made his way to the corner where Yuuri was sitting, empty glasses lined up between himself and Christophe. 

Chris simply looked up, whispered something in his ear that got him giggling and sent a look to Victor that clearly said  _ make this right or else _ . 

He’d apologize to Christophe later apparently. 

“Hey, it looked like something was on your mind today. The harder you fought the worse it got.”

And Yuuri flinched. Crap. This was  _ not _ going well. 

“I mean, you had the power, and the step sequences were amazing. You must dance, da?”

“Uh, yeah… um… ballet”

“It shows… next year you’ll do amazing. Especially if you can stop thinking so much. Maybe Christophe can really with that, no?” He let out his most charming smile as the younger skater turned bright red and threw his hands up.

Victor extended a hand to shake “And I would really like that photo. Even if your tie should be burned.” 

Yuuri shook his hand and looked down at his tie. He didn’t think anything was wrong with it. Before he looked back up, Victor had an arm around Christophe and Yuuri was drinking more. 

He had made it through his final sponsor and escaped with four dinners, one promised Skype call and three that would schedule photo shoots for him to honour his fifth victory. 

He found out that Yuuri was just a friend Christophe had met a few years ago at Skate USA, not Masumi. 

He watched as the younger skater began to drink straight from the bottle, wondering how bad his coach would be at their next practice. 

He watched as Yuuri pulled the young skater from his rink into a dance-off, muttering something about his Russian might suck but his break dancing doesn’t. And neither did his pole dancing. And then he was in front of Victor, leading him in a dance and dipping him. 

It didn’t matter that this man was shorter than him, Yuuri took the lead and had Victor tripping over himself to keep up.

At the end of the dance, he blurted out the first thing that came to mind, “If you could get these moves on the ice, you’d win!”

He ignored the scoff from the angry blonde next to him as Yuuri looked up at him, “Victor, be my coach!” 

At which point his  _ actual _ coach collected him, apologizing.

“No worries, I guess we’re even.” 

He wanted to keep an eye on the man, but he completely disappeared. Not that he had a huge online presence before anyway. 

There was no dedicated channel where he posted all his videos. His Instagram was pitiful. A few publicity shots, some of his old costumes and starting poses, a few with a Thai skater that looked  _ kind of  _ familiar from Christophe’s page and a tiny brown poodle. His phone refused to translate the dog’s name- though it had the most adorable smiley face so it must have an adorable name too!

Most of what he could find was posted on Phichit-Chu’s page, and even that found Yuuri hiding his face more often than not. 

He fell in love with one of the photos of Christophe, Yuuri and Phichit. Yuuri looked panicked and Phichit and Christophe were singing dramatically to him. Unfortunately, there was no video. 

After a couple weeks of this and his direct message about if he still needed a coach sitting in unread- (he even got  _ verified _ so Yuuri would know it was him) Victor started to lose hope. 

He focused on skating and his soulmate- he seemed to be having a rough year. 

Then one day, a few months later, his phone started to go off nonstop after practice. He could hear notifications from a few different apps filtering through while he was in the shower. 

Victor opted to skip reading anything until after his yearly trek to see his mother- his own personal cemetery day. Every year, he’d kneel beside her and tell her his theme and play the songs he would skate to… and every year his soulmate would wind up singing to him. 

He told her about his soulmate’s beautiful voice.

“I don’t know what I’m going to do this year. I can’t even pick my short program music-”

He pressed play and talked through his plans for On Love Eros and On Love Agape. 

“I haven’t even found a free skate yet. I can’t until I pick this. My theme would be Grace if I do Agape, or Fierce if I select Eros. I just don’t-”

His phone was ringing- this time an actual call. Christophe  _ knows _ that this is a special time… 

“I’m still at the cemetery.”

“I know, but-”

Victor let out a string of insults that bordered on swearing.

“Victor. I think it’s something you’ll want to share anyway.”

He felt the buzz of a message.

“I’ll leave you alone now.”

Victor hung up without a goodbye. The only person who ever interrupted this time was the soft chant from his soulmate. He opened the message- the video was short, but he recognized Yuuri. 

Makkachin burrowed her way against him as he watched the younger skater skate last year’s program. He didn’t have the jumps, but the footwork… Victor remembered his words at the banquet-  _ the step sequences were amazing. _

Maybe stopping lessons with Lilia was a bad idea. 

“Mama, I think I’m going to be a coach this year!” 

Victor finished telling her about his year, showing his newest medal and then headed home. It wasn’t until he was boarding a plane that he felt his soulmate again. He thought he might have heard his name, but he simply shook his head and started singing, offering a small apology to the lady in the seat next to him and a simple  _ my soulmate needs me _ . She patted his hand and smiled, waving it off. 

By the time he landed, his soulmate had either recovered or fallen asleep. He found the small onsen and walked in, leaving Makkachin just outside- just in case they didn’t like dogs. 

The woman behind the desk didn’t know much English, but they called someone over to help. Eventually, Makkachin came in and pranced around, loving all the attention. Victor was shown to the baths, given a robe and they said they’d happily look after the poodle. 

About twenty minutes into his soak, the doors leading inside burst open and Yuuri was standing before him, absolutely terrified. 

He stood up, declared he would be Yuuri’s coach… and watched Yuuri crumple to the ground, trying to catch his breath.

And then his soulmate’s voice came through. 

And that was  _ definitely _ his name, and oh.

Oh. 

Victor started singing and watched Yuuri melt. 

He sang louder. 

And then Yuuri tensed up and looked over.

“Double your pleasure?”

Victor smiled, singing the next line, thick with emotion as all the pieces fell into place “Double your fun.”

Yuuri’s eyes were as big as saucers, “You’re my soulmate.”

“Da, and you’re mine. I’ve waited so long for you Yuuri.”

**Author's Note:**

> The word Victor was trying to look up translates to failure. (though phonetically it’s near “worry” as well.)


End file.
